Korean cars in 1996 weren’t like they were today. Back then it was all about value. Nowadays a Hyundai i30 is up there with the likes of the Ford Focus and Volkswagen Golf.
Fast forward back to late 1995, and the Lantra was launched globally, replacing a dull-but-worthy Mitsubishi-derived saloon.

The Chrysler Sebring may not have lasted long here, but it was still an incredibly obscure car in the UK market.
Saloons don’t sell over here in the UK, unless they’re German (and the Toyota Avensis and Honda Accord are just about the only exceptions to this rule). Even Ford withdrew the Mondeo saloon (or sedan to our foreign readers) in mid-2009, although you can still get the Mondeo saloon in Australia, New Zealand, China and other countries.

Choosing the right kind of streetlighting for your town has always been a tricky business. Which manufacturer do you get contracts with, and which is the most efficient lantern in wattage terms etc. – all considerations to add.

WRTL has long been a favourite of British (and Irish) city councils. Based in Dudley, near Birmingham, their products are pretty much a common sight everywhere now.

Lancashire have recently started using them, mainly across Blackpool and West Lancashire, where they’re either retrofitted to concrete lanterns that had either Thorn Beta 79, WRTL SRL8, Urbis ZX1/ZX12 or WRTL 2600s on! (yes, a variety of lanterns on some linked country lanes!) or as new post-top installs (mainly around Blackpool).

Wigan MBC also uses them, but less frequently, and they’re also being used in the West Midlands too.

The design is boxy, and has a “slate”-like appearance; that is, a roof tile/slate fitted onto a post.

However, this is an LED, rather than the traditional streetlight, and from WRTL’s site:

Using Indal’s REVOLED technology, which consists of the very effective DIRECTA lens equipment and the highly efficient COO-LED cooling principle, STELA achieves energy savings of up to 65% in comparison to traditional solutions.

In these days of the “credit crunch”, it may well be, in my opinion, a pretty good solution to use these. Eco-friendly and looks good [my opinion, not paid to endorse this!]

I wouldn’t be surprised if my local council started using these; but then again, another WRTL product is their favourite -the Delta, which is a grey 2600 lookalike.

This is our latest new feature – the car of the day. Every day [at least] we’ll mention a vehicle that’s either worth reminiscing over, technologically interesting, obscure or worthy of note for some reason!

What better way to kick things off with…. a British car from a now “lost” manufacturer?

The Rover 400 was launched in 1990 as part of the R8 project between Rover and Honda, which resulted in the model-sharing arrangement that produced the Rover 200 hatchback and Honda Concerto.